Blood Lions v lion breeding and canned hunting

The turning tide: Blood Lions v lion breeding and canned hunting

• PETER BORCHERT
 
• LIFE, ETC
 
• 13 DEC 2015 10:50 (SOUTH AFRICA)

The makers of the film, Blood Lions, expected to be taken on, and when the court legal challenge did come, the judge threw the case out in its entirety, and awarded the filmmakers all costs. The judge took the point that we simply ask legitimate questions and listen to the answers we are given. By PETER BORCHERT.

First published by Untold Africa.

The documentary film Blood Lions: Bred for the Bullet is making an extraordinary impact around the world. Even the European Parliament is sitting up and taking notice of the unholy alliance between lion breeding and canned hunting. The hunting industry is not enjoying the attention, and here in South Africa the Professional Hunter’s Association is turning against the purveyors of such practices.

Watch the trailer for Blood Lions:

The last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind for the makers and producers of Blood Lions, especially so for Ian Michler, conservationist, safari operator and special consultant to the hard-hitting documentary. It began with the first screenings at the Durban International Film Festival in Durban in July, and hasn’t stopped. Since then Ian has been in Brussels, Helsinki, Turku, London, New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Gaborone and Bogota to promote the feature film that digs deeply into South Africa’s predator breeding and canned trophy hunting industry. And an industry it certainly is, with more than 200 predator breeding farms raising lions for the bullet, the lion bone demand in eastern Asia, and the lucrative petting and voluntourism sectors.

For more of the article check here.

 Peter has a career in publishing and conservation spanning more than four decades. His most recent project has been the development of Untold Africa, a meeting place for intelligent, engrossing and entertaining dialogue for a global community of like-minded people - people who share a common passion for the wild places of Africa, the creatures that inhabit them, and the breadth of African culture. DM

Photo: Two lionesses rub against a cage fence at a captive breeding centre for large predators at an undisclosed location in South Africa's Free State Province in an undated picture released 16 November 2005 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). EPA/IFAW.